How Do I Know if I Have a Lead or Galvanized Water Service?
If your home was built before the 1960s, you may have a lead service connection. The risk of lead also increases when there is evidence that other cases of Private Lead Water Services exist in one or more other properties on the same street.
How to determine the material of your pipes:
- Reference the details of your home inspection.
- Investigate the main service pipe between your foundation and your water meter by engaging in a visual inspection and conducting a scratch test using a key, a coin, or sandpaper to expose the underlying bare metal. You can also hold a magnet to your service line since iron/steel are magnetic while Lead is not magnetic. Learn more about How to conduct a scratch test and what to look for when identifying material types.
- A License Plumber or home inspector can help you determine the material composition of your private water service.
- Use Sudbury’s Open Data portal. Open Data records can indicate the material type of your service line, however, this data is not complete or definitive. Changes may have occurred since the information was initially collected and information regarding the type of water service may not have been provided.
- As a last resort, citizens can contact 311 to find out how the City’s Predictive Lead Model may be able to assist with determining the likelihood of a Private Lead Water Service at their Property. This model can serve as a good investigative tool when trying to identify the material type of your home’s service line. However, this data has been collected using a combination of real historical information and predictive modelling and therefore is not definitive in all cases. Predictive data uses different variables such as the age of the home, or historical work orders in the region to determine the probability of a home having a lead service line.